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Thursday, April 1, 2010

Just a few weeks ago we learnt that former world chess champion Anatoly Karpov is set to challenge Kirsan Illyumzhinov for the presidency of FIDE.

Today, news of a remarkable third candidate has rocked the chess world - none other than the founder of Microsoft himself, Bill Gates (pictured)!

Bill Gates has long been known to have a keen interest in chess, although his early efforts at the game were soon eclipsed by his rather more successful efforts at founding a global computer business.

In his own words, "When I was young, I wanted to be the world's best chess player, and of course, I didn't succeed. I wanted to be the world's best Go player too. I wanted to keep IBM in a happy partnership with Microsoft, and that didn't work out either. There are people I wanted to hire whom I couldn't, so I've had plenty of disappointments."- from "Bill Gates Speaks".

Now retired, Gates devotes much of his time to charitable works through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The foundation's activities are driven by the interests and passions of the Gates' family, and it was from this source that the idea for standing for FIDE president arose.

There is no official word yet on what policies we might expect to see from president Bill Gates, but sources close to the great man suggest that if he succeeds (the election is during the Olympiad in September), the world championship would become a televised yearly tournament called the "Microsoft Chess Titans Challenge" with internet qualification events and guaranteed sponsorship worth millions of dollars.

Anatoly Karpov and Kirsan Illyumzhinov were unavailable for comment...